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Sunday, April 08, 2007

Happy Easter and a BBQ

This Easter Sunday I had a little BBQ at my house, to relax with some friends. Having any sort of soirée during the Easter weekend requires precision planning. Pretty much all the shops (except for bakeries and Fish & Chip shops) are closed on Friday and Sunday, so you'll need to buy supplies in advance, or do your shopping on Saturday. (I work on Saturdays, so was unable to shop). I bought all my meat and bread on Thursday and froze it.

I didn't really prepare anything special, apart from an Eastery chocolate Guinness cake. I made this cake, rather than, say, Nigella's Chocolate Easter Cake for 2 reasons. First, I wanted to use up the leftover Guinness from last time I made this cake, and because I wanted to see the chocolate Guinness cake in its full size. The last time, I made cupcakes and a half-size version of the cake, which meant I missed out on what Nigella describes as the cake's "black majesty". Anyway, to make this cake more appropriate for the occasion, I studded the icing with sugar eggs from the inside of a Cadbury Dinosaur egg.

Now, for the actual barbecue part of the barbecue, here is what I served...

For the steaks and onions, I used a method supplied by a German friend. You marinate the steaks overnight with a bunch of finely sliced onions, cayenne pepper, paprika, salt and pepper. The next day, you remove the steaks from the marinade, and BBQ them as per usual. With the onions, you wrap them up in foil, making a baggy but secure package, and cook them like that on the BBQ. This combination of steaming and barbecueing makes them meltingly tender.

The baked feta, the idea for which came from the same friend, follows a similar principle. Take a wide, flattish piece of feta, and wrap it up in foil with a little bit of oil, paprika and a sliced pickled chilli. (Available in any supermarket next to the jalapenos). Then place it on the barbecue, and cook until heated through and soft. This was delicious!! It was also a good vegetarian alternative for my cousin who doesn't eat red meat.

Check out the Living Kitchen cake dome. I bought it for my parents for Christmas, and it has made a welcome addition to our kitchen table. Perfect for serving pretty cakes, or just to house the random half-loaves and rolls of bread that we seem to accumulate each week.

The cake really does look nice when it is baked in a large tin. It looks very black and dramatic in such a large size. It is sweet though, so thin slices are essential.

F - For the sauerkraut, I just rinsed it and plonked it on the table. I think you can add spices and herbs to it, but I like it plain.

Randi - I wouldn't say the guinness cake is my favourite, but it is nice, and I had to use up all the guinness, haha. The cadbury carton has big easter eggs in it. My friend Wes bought it for me, woooo!

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About Me

A 30 year old Malaysian - Chinese - Australian food lover. Lives in Melbourne. Loves eating, cooking and baking, in this great city and around the world. Current culinary obsessions are traditional German and British recipes.
Photos by Sandra K at Sekai Photography.
Original Artwork by Zhen.